Why is Marauder so bad?

[TheRandomWolf]

I have tried all classes somewhat at least. The one that I've had more issues with was the Marauder. Never in my life I have died so much in this game. It's just laughable. Even with stims, a tank/damage companion, up-to-date gear and a "build"... my marauder just keeps failing miserably. It's incredibly frustrating. I have tried all possible outcomes, using different set of skills and Specializations... it's just so, so bad... and I regret having poured hours into this character. What am I doing wrong? Even if I roll my companion as a healer, my damage is simply awful and it takes too long to kill an enemy. It's also pratically impossible for me to do "solo" missions because I'll end up dead in a matter of seconds...

 

What if I give him tank mods? Would that help?

Edited February 21, 2017 by TheRandomWolf

[SteveTheCynic]

What if I give him tank mods? Would that help?

Absolutely not. It would reduce your damage output without adding anything useful.

 

Why?

 

Well, each stat slot spent on tank stats (Absorb, Shield, and Defense) is a stat slot you didn't spend on DPS stats (Crit, Alacrity, and Accuracy). The accuracy reported in the 'C' panel should be as close as possible to 110% - having less causes misses against bosses, and having more is points you spent on Accuracy that you might have been able to spend to better effect on Alacrity or Crit. The tank stats are useful for tanks, of course, but: Shield and Absorb govern how well you use your Shield generator offhand, and Marauders can't use that. Defense is also of more benefit for tanks than anyone else.

 

Next part: tank armorings, hilts, and mods (Resistive and Warding) are good for tanks because they augment survivability, but they do this at the expense of damage output because they increase Endurance and reduce Mastery and Power. A DPS character uses Mastery and Power as the base-line damage output boosters.

 

So. How to configure gear, then? Well, my schema for DPS characters is a full set of Versatile armorings and (hilts or barrels), plain unlettered Lethal mods (i.e. Lethal Mod 25 instead of 25A or 25B), and a mix of enhancements. In general, I use three Quick Savant, two Initiative, and two Adept. And then full-power earpieces, relics, and implants, and install Augment Kit MK-10 on everything and install the toppest Augments you can get your hands on, a mix of Alacrity and Crit.

 

This will do the business in pretty much all solo content, and will be pretty good for Flashpoints and Operations as well. It probably won't do for Nightmare ops - called "Master" level now - but that's a whole separate question.

 

And use the highest ratings you can on the mod objects and non-moddable pieces. That means 228 purple if you've just reached level 70.

 

One last thing. Give your companions gifts to raise their Influence. The higher this is, the better they'll perform in combat. In general, DPS characters do better using healer companions, but it's highly "suck it and see".

[Cuiwe]

I have tried all classes somewhat at least. The one that I've had more issues with was the Marauder. Never in my life I have died so much in this game. It's just laughable. Even with stims, a tank/damage companion, up-to-date gear and a "build"... my marauder just keeps failing miserably. It's incredibly frustrating. I have tried all possible outcomes, using different set of skills and Specializations... it's just so, so bad... and I regret having poured hours into this character. What am I doing wrong? Even if I roll my companion as a healer, my damage is simply awful and it takes too long to kill an enemy. It's also pratically impossible for me to do "solo" missions because I'll end up dead in a matter of seconds...

 

What if I give him tank mods? Would that help?

 

What are you trying to do on your Marauder? Give us a scope towards which we'll give you answers.

[TheRandomWolf]

What are you trying to do on your Marauder? Give us a scope towards which we'll give you answers.

 

I would like to do some decent amount of damage but also hold my own ground. I don't want to become extremely "powerful"... just enough to manage to strike my enemies down and still live to tell the story. I don't really know how to get into detail.

[SteveTheCynic]

I would like to do some decent amount of damage but also hold my own ground. I don't want to become extremely "powerful"... just enough to manage to strike my enemies down and still live to tell the story. I don't really know how to get into detail.

We want to know what you're trying to do because, er, um, well, you know, like, we don't have this problem with Marauders (nor with Sentinels). Well, perhaps with *other people's* Marauders/Sentinels, but not with our own.

 

So when you say "up to date" gear, what rating do you have? Do you have augments? What level are you? What content are you trying to do? What Influence rank is your companion?

 

Doing Veteran flashpoints at level 20, say, will be harder than at level 70, simply because your ability list is incomplete and therefore much of your rotation just plain doesn't work, but also because you will have less Alacrity, Crit, and Accuracy on your gear.

[Balameb]

I have tried all classes somewhat at least. The one that I've had more issues with was the Marauder. Never in my life I have died so much in this game. It's just laughable. Even with stims, a tank/damage companion

 

There. Have you tried a healer companion? If you stay in range of your healer companion you should have not much problem with most content.

[mysidehun]

I have tried all classes somewhat at least. The one that I've had more issues with was the Marauder. Never in my life I have died so much in this game. It's just laughable. Even with stims, a tank/damage companion, up-to-date gear and a "build"... my marauder just keeps failing miserably. It's incredibly frustrating. I have tried all possible outcomes, using different set of skills and Specializations... it's just so, so bad... and I regret having poured hours into this character. What am I doing wrong? Even if I roll my companion as a healer, my damage is simply awful and it takes too long to kill an enemy. It's also pratically impossible for me to do "solo" missions because I'll end up dead in a matter of seconds...

 

What if I give him tank mods? Would that help?

 

Marauders/Sentinels are viable for all contents of the game, be it solo(chapters, SF, EC), pve(fp, ops) or pvp.

 

For advice, share us what content are you trying to do - flashpoints or chapters or whatever -, and give details like 'I use X skill after Y, followed by Z' and 'when XX uses YY I pop ZZ'. If you can record it and upload the video here, that would help greatly.

 

Using tank mods on a dps spec is a bad idea. Tank mods and dps spec won't last you longer than dps mods.

[TheRandomWolf]

We want to know what you're trying to do because, er, um, well, you know, like, we don't have this problem with Marauders (nor with Sentinels). Well, perhaps with *other people's* Marauders/Sentinels, but not with our own.

 

So when you say "up to date" gear, what rating do you have? Do you have augments? What level are you? What content are you trying to do? What Influence rank is your companion?

 

Doing Veteran flashpoints at level 20, say, will be harder than at level 70, simply because your ability list is incomplete and therefore much of your rotation just plain doesn't work, but also because you will have less Alacrity, Crit, and Accuracy on your gear.

 

To answer you and everyone.

 

My Marauder is currently level 54. I plan to get him at Level 70 sometime soon. By "up to date" gear, I mean that whenever I can, I purchase new modifications from their respective vendors. When I get to level 68-70 I'll purchase the cheap ones from GTN and hoep for the best out of the RNG from the crates. My companions are always around 10-30. Never more than that, really. I don't really want to spend thousands of credits and hours feeding them gifts. The content that I'm trying to do are Flashpoints(Story and Veteran, and by Veteran I mean with a full party or a friend), Side Quests, Story Quests and Heroics. But even by doing those I still have a hard time.

[SteveTheCynic]

To answer you and everyone.

 

My Marauder is currently level 54. I plan to get him at Level 70 sometime soon. By "up to date" gear, I mean that whenever I can, I purchase new modifications from their respective vendors. When I get to level 68-70 I'll purchase the cheap ones from GTN and hoep for the best out of the RNG from the crates. My companions are always around 10-30. Never more than that, really. I don't really want to spend thousands of credits and hours feeding them gifts. The content that I'm trying to do are Flashpoints(Story and Veteran, and by Veteran I mean with a full party or a friend), Side Quests, Story Quests and Heroics. But even by doing those I still have a hard time.

Hmm. OK.

 

First, have you played Sentinel? Did you do OK with Sentinel? It and Marauder are the same, except for different names and animations. The abilities are the same, numerically. So make sure you are using the corresponding Discipline and utility abilities ("K" panel) and arrange your Marauder action bars *exactly* the same as your Sentinel's. That will help. If you can't get on with Sentinel either, then at least this would mean that you only need to go through the learning pain once.

 

Second, take a look at the guides on dulfy.net, and read them thoroughly. They are, in general, talking about max-level characters, but you should be able to extract useful tips from them.

 

Third, make sure you aren't under-level for the content you're trying to do. That should be hard these days,(1) but if necessary, go back to Korriban, Dromund Kaas and Balmorra (etc.) and do any side or Exploration mission you can find. If you don't ever find Exploration missions, turn on the checkbox in the top-right of the "M" map panel, then search. Do the planetary arc missions. There isn't such an arc on Korriban, but there is on Dromund Kaas - see Sandor by The Wall taxi point - as well as later planets.

 

And having ingested all the above advice, take the time to learn how the class works. The Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior classes all have a unique energy management mechanic, and you *must* respect it or you will fail hard. The Dulfy guides should tell you all about it.

 

Sorry if some of this advice seems a bit basic, but you are being wilfully vague, so I have to operate on the basis that you are missing some basic stuff. If you're finding side missions (plain yellow triangles on the mission giver) hard, well, that's strong evidence that you are missing some basic stuff.

 

(1) It's hard, but not impossible. There were repeated complaints during 4.X by people unable to even scratch foes during the second half of Tatooine because they were too low in level, and I met a guy on Quesh who ...

 

Hmm. No. I didn't meet him on Quesh. He shouted in Imp-side Quesh general chat about how he couldn't get onto the planet to pursue his class mission chain. He was stuck on the orbital station with no way down. I went up to the station and found the correct NPC for him - you have to have begun the Quesh planetary arc in order for the shuttle to let you use it - but this NPC wouldn't give him the time of day, even. The character was only level 30, and the NPC won't let you take the mission until you are at least level 31 (maybe 32), and there is literally NO other way onto the surface of Quesh. (Exception: it might be possible to get a guild-ship teleport to the surface, but a sane guild wouldn't do that for a level 30 character because he would be unable to scratch the foes.)

[SteveTheCynic]

Oh, yeah, and one other thing. Marauder is a two-weapon class. There are four true two-weapon classes: Sentinel, Marauder, Gunslinger, and Mercenary. Operative and Scoundrel are pseudo-two-weapon classes - the second weapon is an invisible thing you must have (exception: the Operative's Vibroknife is visible when used, but not at any other time).

 

So, do you have two lightsabres? (Vibroswords count as lightsabres for this purpose.) If not, a *bunch* of your abilities will NOT work.

[ObsidianBones]

Now I'm wondering if I'm missing something incredibly basic too when it comes to the Marauder class as I recently kept getting my butt kicked in a Heroic on Makeb, and I'm at level 70. I can't recall the name of the mission but it was where you have to board The Third Eye and defeat the Operative Droid, which sounds simple enough but every time I get into a fight with it, all these Regulator/Cartel NPCs come out of nowhere and kill me in a matter of a minute, maybe less. I use stims and medpacks, and have a level 13 Pierce set to Heal and still get killed.

 

I don't remember what my gear is at (I'd have to log in to check) but I feel that being at level 70 on a planet that has a max of 56 should make doing the Heroics easy enough by myself. My selected Discipline is Damage/Fury, so I should be strong enough but again, I feel as though I'm missing something important. Maybe I need to just drop it for now and stick to the Dailies and Heroics I can do?

 

P.S. Didn't seem to run into this problem with my Sentinel, so I'm a little lost.

[Ottoattack]

As mara heal companion is highly recommended. Some of what was mentioned as the obstacles can be easily overcome by healing companion, reasonable gear and cycling defensive cool downs.

 

In fact mara is arguably the strongest solo class right now.

[Balameb]

Now I'm wondering if I'm missing something incredibly basic too when it comes to the Marauder class as I recently kept getting my butt kicked in a Heroic on Makeb, and I'm at level 70. I can't recall the name of the mission but it was where you have to board The Third Eye and defeat the Operative Droid, which sounds simple enough but every time I get into a fight with it, all these Regulator/Cartel NPCs come out of nowhere and kill me in a matter of a minute, maybe less. I use stims and medpacks, and have a level 13 Pierce set to Heal and still get killed.

 

I don't remember what my gear is at (I'd have to log in to check) but I feel that being at level 70 on a planet that has a max of 56 should make doing the Heroics easy enough by myself. My selected Discipline is Damage/Fury, so I should be strong enough but again, I feel as though I'm missing something important. Maybe I need to just drop it for now and stick to the Dailies and Heroics I can do?

 

P.S. Didn't seem to run into this problem with my Sentinel, so I'm a little lost.

 

I would rise your companion influence to 20s at least to be safer. Check that Mastery, Endurance and Power are in orange in your character sheet. That would indicate that level sync has capped your main 3 stats to maxium for the planet. If not in orange, then you gear may need an upgrade.

 

Now, getting against a large group of mobs is always complicated. It seems easy because of lvl gap but as you get damage your companion heals you and easily gets the aggro. That is were things usually go south, try to keep the aggro and if your companion gets attacked go to those mobs first. Your companion needs to be "free" to better heal you and him/her self.

[Kurfer]

They are one of the best classes in 5.1 for PvE and PvP.

 

Practice rotating your defensive CD's.

 

Here is a video showing a single player boss fight in a master mode chapter:

 

 

Each defensive CD is rotated for max survival.

[TheRandomWolf]

I appreciate you people's will to try and help me and others, but it's not really doing much good for someone like. Turns out Marauder isn't the only issue. I'm also having some difficulty on my Jedi Shadow. It's minor, but a bother sometimes. I also found out that my Vanguard, even with the correct set of modifications and ideas, is complete trash... and the only reason why I can play my Jedi Guardian at all it's thanks to my Healing and Defense skills and the Damage companion.

 

This always happens when I play a MMO. I just suck at it, no matter how hard I try. This is why I'm not going to focus as hard as I wanted to. I'll play mostly with my Guardian and just complete what I need to do with the other classes and just leave them be after I'm done.

 

Thank you guys once again and my apologies for wasting your time, in a matter of speaking.

[mugsybugsy]

They are one of the best classes in 5.1 for PvE and PvP.

 

Practice rotating your defensive CD's.

 

Here is a video showing a single player boss fight in a master mode chapter:

 

 

Each defensive CD is rotated for max survival.

 

wrong rotation

[MixWeidner]

I appreciate you people's will to try and help me and others, but it's not really doing much good for someone like. Turns out Marauder isn't the only issue. I'm also having some difficulty on my Jedi Shadow. It's minor, but a bother sometimes. I also found out that my Vanguard, even with the correct set of modifications and ideas, is complete trash... and the only reason why I can play my Jedi Guardian at all it's thanks to my Healing and Defense skills and the Damage companion.

 

This always happens when I play a MMO. I just suck at it, no matter how hard I try. This is why I'm not going to focus as hard as I wanted to. I'll play mostly with my Guardian and just complete what I need to do with the other classes and just leave them be after I'm done.

 

Thank you guys once again and my apologies for wasting your time, in a matter of speaking.

 

Why do you use Damage companion? If you have some issues with survival and you're DPS, just put them to heal you. On a mara, a shadow, or a vanguard. You can put your companion to DPS when you do a content which is well below your level, like doing Heroics on Dromund Kaas when you're level 70.

 

Don't lose hope!

Edited February 28, 2017 by MixWeidner

[SteveTheCynic]

This always happens when I play a MMO. I just suck at it, no matter how hard I try.

I won't say that you should try *harder*, but...

 

(WARNING: philosophical discussion ahead)

 

Doing well (even by casual-gamer standards) at MMORPGs requires you to observe and accommodate patterns. Fortunately for us, as humans, we're actually quite good at that, but it does require some attention. The people who write those guides I recommended have already done that analysis, so we can benefit from their work.

 

Remember what I call the Jennur's Horde rule. Jennur's Horde is a "mission" (roughly a class mission in SWTOR terms, but the "end of planet" one rather than one of the intermediate ones) in Guild Wars 1's Nightfall campaign. It represents a large step up in difficulty, both relative to the story quests before (and after) it and also relative to the missions before (and after) it. It imposes a hard requirement to exert strict control over your rate of advance, and enthusiastically punishes people who ignore that requirement. The Jennur's Horde rule isn't about aggro control, though. It is this:

 

Whenever something in a game is hard, that is an opportunity to learn to play better.

 

An alternative formulation;

 

Hard missions are lessons, not punishment.

 

So, you find these games hard. No problem, we all have that difficulty from time to time. Learn from that difficulty in one game, and they will all be a little easier, partly because you'll have learned about learning to play. Similarly, learn about the hard stuff in one class and you will learn about learning about classes, and that will help with the next one.

 

Yes, of course, there are random (more accurately, "arbitrary") things that happen. Damage for a particular attack will be "random", if only because the chance of critical success is neither 0% nor 100%, but the patterns of which attacks are more damaging in which circumstances are NOT random.

[ObsidianBones]

I would rise your companion influence to 20s at least to be safer. Check that Mastery, Endurance and Power are in orange in your character sheet. That would indicate that level sync has capped your main 3 stats to maxium for the planet. If not in orange, then you gear may need an upgrade.

 

Now, getting against a large group of mobs is always complicated. It seems easy because of lvl gap but as you get damage your companion heals you and easily gets the aggro. That is were things usually go south, try to keep the aggro and if your companion gets attacked go to those mobs first. Your companion needs to be "free" to better heal you and him/her self.

 

I did some upgrades to my Marauder's armor and lightsabers, which really seemed to help a lot, although I have yet to attempt the Heroic on Makeb again. I'm also working on increasing Companion influence across the board, as well as my strategies when I get into combat with large mobs. Seems to be working so far. I appreciate all the pointers!

[KendraP]

I appreciate you people's will to try and help me and others, but it's not really doing much good for someone like. Turns out Marauder isn't the only issue. I'm also having some difficulty on my Jedi Shadow. It's minor, but a bother sometimes. I also found out that my Vanguard, even with the correct set of modifications and ideas, is complete trash... and the only reason why I can play my Jedi Guardian at all it's thanks to my Healing and Defense skills and the Damage companion.

 

This always happens when I play a MMO. I just suck at it, no matter how hard I try. This is why I'm not going to focus as hard as I wanted to. I'll play mostly with my Guardian and just complete what I need to do with the other classes and just leave them be after I'm done.

 

Thank you guys once again and my apologies for wasting your time, in a matter of speaking.

 

I can't really help with sentinels or dps shadows in general since I don't play a sentinel and my shadow is a tank. But I have played the game for quite a while as a guardian (primarily tank but vigilence dps now too). If soloing content is something you find difficult roll a healing companion. This is true for any dps or tanking class. I generally run mine as dps but then I'm usually a tank so the faster kills are nice. If I find myself struggling to stay alive, a healing companion genealogy solves the issue. On all my character except my main, my companions are all pretty low influence too (like around 10).

 

You say you suck at it but there are plenty of resources avaliable. For the tactical (veteran now) FPs, if you end up in a group of lowbies with no healer in say blood hunt it's going to be difficult (not impossible, but seriously who put the healing stations on the edge of the platform in a FP with a knock back mechanic). If you're struggling with story bosses or heroics it's probably a matter of rolling a healing companion (seriously any companion can heal now so it's not like you're stuck with doc) and possibly doing stuff like interrupting and using DCDs.

 

In all honesty the best thing to do if you're struggling but want to stick with the game or improve is going to be finding a group to play with. I spent about 2 years playing this game solo, before the FPs went from solo to tactical and reduced the importance of tanks. When that happened I finally started doing ops and joined a guild. I still play with many of the same people today. To those who say time is a problem, honestly having a guild or group of friends helps this problem. What takes longer, one person wailing on a group of adds in a heroic or 4? Gearing is easier since many guilds have craters that can make stuff for you. It's arguably more fun and faster to learn since you have a group of players all striving toward the same goal.

 

Anyway, long discussion over now and I hope you find some useful advice floating around.

[TheRandomWolf]

I can't really help with sentinels or dps shadows in general since I don't play a sentinel and my shadow is a tank. But I have played the game for quite a while as a guardian (primarily tank but vigilence dps now too). If soloing content is something you find difficult roll a healing companion. This is true for any dps or tanking class. I generally run mine as dps but then I'm usually a tank so the faster kills are nice. If I find myself struggling to stay alive, a healing companion genealogy solves the issue. On all my character except my main, my companions are all pretty low influence too (like around 10).

 

You say you suck at it but there are plenty of resources avaliable. For the tactical (veteran now) FPs, if you end up in a group of lowbies with no healer in say blood hunt it's going to be difficult (not impossible, but seriously who put the healing stations on the edge of the platform in a FP with a knock back mechanic). If you're struggling with story bosses or heroics it's probably a matter of rolling a healing companion (seriously any companion can heal now so it's not like you're stuck with doc) and possibly doing stuff like interrupting and using DCDs.

 

In all honesty the best thing to do if you're struggling but want to stick with the game or improve is going to be finding a group to play with. I spent about 2 years playing this game solo, before the FPs went from solo to tactical and reduced the importance of tanks. When that happened I finally started doing ops and joined a guild. I still play with many of the same people today. To those who say time is a problem, honestly having a guild or group of friends helps this problem. What takes longer, one person wailing on a group of adds in a heroic or 4? Gearing is easier since many guilds have craters that can make stuff for you. It's arguably more fun and faster to learn since you have a group of players all striving toward the same goal.

 

Anyway, long discussion over now and I hope you find some useful advice floating around.

 

Like I mentioned, the issue is in all classes. They all start just fine. I had some issues with Guardian at the start but quickly got the hang of it... but most classes I manage to do the first 30 levels with no problems. Then it starts to get harder. I start planning the mods, ask around for tips, look up guides for the right gear with hopes of things getting easier once I reach level 65-70. It doesn't. And this is pretty much my final decision. My susbcription will ran out in a week, and if I manage to complete the remaining Class Stories of the game, I'll most likely leave. There isn't much of a point for me to keep playing a game that will frustrate me over and over because I'm simply bad at it.

 

Also, "find a group"? Are you serious? I've been playing this since December and haven't found a "friend". I'm pretty much all by myself. I tried to convince some real-life friends, but they quit the game after a few days because of the limitations... even though I had purchased them the Deluxe Edition. Tried to convince some online friends but they didn't want to. I tried to get some friends in-game... ended up being ignored. I joined some guilds; some were toxic.. and others the people were too busy and weren't interested.

Edited March 2, 2017 by TheRandomWolf

[SteveTheCynic]

At the risk of giving offence, I'd suggest that the problem isn't the game, nor the classes, nor the guilds, even.

 

OK, there are toxic and useless guilds out there, but there are also good ones that help you out. Where you are stuck in a big fight somewhere, and they tell you, when you shout in guild chat, what you need to do to kill the boss(1). Where they take you out to Operations, where they help you get gear, where they help out new members with gifts of crafted gear to help them get up to speed, and so on, and everyone has a good laugh when you admit to having done something stupid.

 

Classes, generally, get *easier* at higher levels because they get progressively more of their abilities unlocked, so the "rotations" work better. But, equally, the situations around you get more and more punitive (less non-punitive?) of poor play. It becomes harder and harder to get by just by spamming your basic attack. It *should* get harder to do that, of course.

 

But it is the player's responsibility (yours, mine, etc.) to remember the Jennur's Horde rule (see my earlier post) and profit from it. That rule describes a way to do what the Outlander does in KotET Chapter II, and see problems as opportunities.

 

Problem: this thing is hard.

Opportunity: I can learn to play better.

 

To *profit* from the rule is to learn what it takes to make it not hard. To learn how to exploit the gimmick in a gimmick fight. To learn a good rotation for my class and discipline so that I can kill foes more easily, defend myself better, or support my team-mates better (depending on my class/discipline). To learn what things are common to all classes ("don't stand in stupid") and what are not. And so on.

 

But for *your* gameplay, it is *your* responsibility to learn these things, just as it is *my* responsibility to learn them for *my* gameplay. We can help you, give you pointers, tips, advice, and so on, but *you* must learn these things. You haven't claimed a learning disability so I'm presuming you don't have one, so it is down to you to do the work.

 

Watch, listen, experiment. Try stuff to see what happens. Keep notes, even if it's only in your head. Look for patterns in what happens and what does not happens, and look for ways to use those patterns for your benefit.

 

All of the above, with a few obvious exceptions, are applicable to any MMORPG, and, indeed, any video game, on-line or not.

 

(1) This happened to me, in the big fight on Yavin IV. There's a special mechanic you must use, and it's less than totally obvious, *until* you've done it correctly at least once. I shouted in guild chat, and they responded with useful advice.

[Flusssaeure]

Now I'm wondering if I'm missing something incredibly basic too when it comes to the Marauder class as I recently kept getting my butt kicked in a Heroic on Makeb, and I'm at level 70. I can't recall the name of the mission but it was where you have to board The Third Eye and defeat the Operative Droid, which sounds simple enough but every time I get into a fight with it, all these Regulator/Cartel NPCs come out of nowhere and kill me in a matter of a minute, maybe less. I use stims and medpacks, and have a level 13 Pierce set to Heal and still get killed.

 

I don't remember what my gear is at (I'd have to log in to check) but I feel that being at level 70 on a planet that has a max of 56 should make doing the Heroics easy enough by myself. My selected Discipline is Damage/Fury, so I should be strong enough but again, I feel as though I'm missing something important. Maybe I need to just drop it for now and stick to the Dailies and Heroics I can do?

 

P.S. Didn't seem to run into this problem with my Sentinel, so I'm a little lost.

 

The Adds in this fight are not coming from nowhere, the Droid is standing in the middle of a plattform with a lot of trash mobs. If you attack the droid all trash mobs on the plattform aggro you and join the fight against you. I havn't done this mission in 5.X but in 4.X at Level 65 with a influence 50 healing companion you died when you tried to skip the trash mobs and attack the droid without doing them. Even a two player group with two healing companions couldn't survive the incoming damage if you ignored the trash mobs. However as soon you realise that it is quite obvious what you need to do before engaging the droid attack the trash mobs one by one and kill them and when you killed the trash mobs than you can safely attack the droid.

 

So I would say you killed the mobs before attacking the droid with your sentinel and you didn't on your marauder.

 

I am not 100% sure if you really need to kill all trash mobs but after it is quite a long Heroic I didn't bother to try how many trash mobs I needed to kill to survive and just killed all.

 

In fact combining the length of the heroic, with the fact that it has two boss fights (the droid and the captain) and has a debriefing cut scene that is a little bit different if you do it with muliple players instead of one caused some speculation in my guilld that it originaly was intended to be a flashpoint and was later downscaled to a heroic.

 

The one where you have to battle the final boss of the Heroic with the fire-extinguisher also looked like it original was intended for a little bit more than just a heroic.

[Exaccuss]

But... marauder isnt bad. I've been doing the story (up to the revan expac) and i totally wreck everyone. Though, having that stupidly op heal companion helps alot. Even without it, as long as you dont pull too many enemies, you wont die as long as you understand your class.

[KendraP]

Like I mentioned, the issue is in all classes. They all start just fine. I had some issues with Guardian at the start but quickly got the hang of it... but most classes I manage to do the first 30 levels with no problems. Then it starts to get harder. I start planning the mods, ask around for tips, look up guides for the right gear with hopes of things getting easier once I reach level 65-70. It doesn't. And this is pretty much my final decision. My susbcription will ran out in a week, and if I manage to complete the remaining Class Stories of the game, I'll most likely leave. There isn't much of a point for me to keep playing a game that will frustrate me over and over because I'm simply bad at it.

 

Also, "find a group"? Are you serious? I've been playing this since December and haven't found a "friend". I'm pretty much all by myself. I tried to convince some real-life friends, but they quit the game after a few days because of the limitations... even though I had purchased them the Deluxe Edition. Tried to convince some online friends but they didn't want to. I tried to get some friends in-game... ended up being ignored. I joined some guilds; some were toxic.. and others the people were too busy and weren't interested.

 

When I first started this game, I had never played an mmo before. I remember the first time I did the final boss fight in the jedi knight story. I hadn't bothered gearing the required companion since about level 15 and had no idea how most mechanics worked. I lost that fight a fair few times before finally figuring it out (and getting the comp semi respectable gear in the process).

My point is that everyone starts somewhere. I now tank for HM operations on that same guardian. As far as survival against open world npc goes for dps classes, it's all about killing enemies fast, using defensive cooldowns properly, or using a healing companion.

As an example, I was doing a heroic last night on a vigilence guradian with a dps (level 15) companion. All the gold/silver mobs I had no issues with (ranged mobs are basically saber reflect spam for guardians). I accidentally pulled a champion level dude. I got him down to about 30% health, then died. I swapped my companion to heals and pulled him again (no stupid npc is going to kill me and live! Lol). With heals, it was stupid easy. If a tad long.

As far as my recommendation about grouping goes, I refused to do any kind of group content for a year after I started playing (this was about 2.0). Eventually I got bored of doing nothing but levelling and started doing flashpoints. With 4.0 I finally got fed up with them and started doing ops. I joined a random group on fleet that invited me into their voice server and joining them, found a guild. Now that I am one of the leaders of my guild, I frequently recruit newer members. Being willing to learn goes a long way. I don't mind helping new people with advice (if they play guardians) or gear at all assuming they are willing to listen and learn.

All that being said, I'm hardly an expert even on my preferred class. There are guides around written by people who are. I do like to think I'm a decent guardian player who can give newcomers valuable advice. Fundamentally, we are all here to have fun and if you have decided it's too hard and you can't have fun then that's your decision and I'm sorry to hear it.